I must increase

The Writing Life 14 Comments

I am at a writing retreat. (Thanks, Dave!)

My first day here, I wrote from about 8 in the morning until 9 at night, with breaks for meals and occasional chit-chat. I produced about 2,500 words. That is perhaps 250 words an hour, or one lonely page.

Don’t get me wrong. I love those words. They’re good words. And I am super glad I have 2,500 words more than I did when I came to this retreat, but I need to produce a lot more than that. In fact, today I’d like to double that.

I’m not sure how to do that, but here is what I am going to try today.

1) Outline. I usually write more or less into the dark, but today I’m going to try to figure out at least some rough idea of where this is going.

2) Sprint. Do at least one timed 15 sprint each hour, with the stopwatch running. Try to hit 250 new words in that time.

3) Check in hourly. Report both on what I’ve been doing, and where the count stands.

4) HAVE FUN. Put in the most fun things I can imagine into the book, so that I will be excited to write.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

And if you have some ideas for me, I’d love to hear them.

Okay, time to make the donuts.

–JDP

14 responses on “I must increase”

  1. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 1 report:
    15 min. eating breakfast
    15 min. blogging
    15 min. outlining
    15 min. sprinting
    NEW WORDS = 235
    Not bad! Let’s build on this.

  2. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 2 report:
    15 min. snacking, stretching, chatting
    30 min. writing (194 words)
    15 min. sprinting (227 words)
    TOTAL NEW WORDS = 421
    Better! Let’s keep up ramping up. 🙂

  4. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 4 report
    30 min. writing
    10 min. stretching break
    20 min. sprint (260 words)
    NEW WORDS = 495 words
    Hmmm… Backsliding. Got to crank this up.

  6. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 6
    15 min. chatting and stretching
    15 min. email and business
    15 min. sprint (171 words)
    15 min. sprint (244 words)
    NEW WORDS = 415
    Got to pick up that pace!

  7. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 7
    35 min. writing (240 words)
    10 min. break
    15 min. sprint (273 words)
    NEW WORDS – 513
    Better, but is this really my top speed?

  8. Trighter

    Are you writing with a purpose? What are you writing about? I write when I need or I have to. When I write I have a clear goal I want to achieve with my piece of text. how is your process/

    1. John D. Payne Post author

      I am writing about superheroes, and my purpose is to finish my novel. Which I am now super excited about after a great writing day yesterday.

  9. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 8 report
    30 min. writing (330 words)
    15 min. phone call and stretching break
    15 min. birthday presenting
    NEW WORDS 330
    Whoops that kind of got away from me. Time to buckle down!

  10. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 9 report
    20 min. sprint (232 words)
    20 min. sprint (219 words)
    20 min. sprint (338 words)
    NEW WORDS = 789
    Hallelujah! Now that’s more like it! Let’s see if we can do that again!

  11. John D. Payne Post author

    Hour 10 report
    15 min. writing (240)
    15 min. phone call and stretching break
    15 min. writing (176)
    15 min. sprint (256)
    NEW WORDS = 672
    Rock on! What a good day this has been! Can I keep it going?

  12. John D. Payne Post author

    30 min. writing (300 words)
    15 min. spring (200 words)
    15 min. business
    NEW WORDS = 500
    Nice! I think that makes about 5,000 words for the day. Woweee!!! And just in time for dinner.